Microsoft Windows, most of you are probably using it right now, or at least are familiar
with it.
But as you might expect, there are a ton of settings you probably don't know about, but
at the same time should probably change, whether it's turning off settings that are on be default,
or the other way around.
Now you may have seen my other video talking about 15 Windows Settings to Change, but this
is kind of like a part 2 to that, with 13 more completely different settings than that.
So if you haven't seen that video, I highly recommend watching that afterwards, so I'll
put that link in the description, and have the little pop out icon you can click on and
all that Anyway, in this video I'm going to point out that I will be using Windows 10
and Build 1909, so things might look slightly different depending on your version, but it
mostly should look the same.
Before we jump in be sure to check out my Instagram account where I post cool tech stuff,
and the most hilarious tech memes in existence, please don't blame me if you die of a heart
attack from laughing too hard.
So my username is just @ThioJoe so be sure to check that out over on Instagram.
So, let's get started with Number 1 which is the feature called "Clipboard history",
which can be found in Settings, System, Clipboard, and then toggle it on.
You can then use it by instead of pressing Ctrl +V, press Windows Key + V. It's pretty
self explanatory, but I personally think this feature is really useful, because there plenty
of times I want to access text I had copied before, but it's gone because I copied something
else or forgot.
Now you do have the option to also sync the clipboard history across devices, but I personally
don't use that.
If you do though, you can actually choose to automatically sync everything, or just
certain things manually, so you have quite a bit of control.
And of course you can clear the clipboard history any time.
Definitely a feature worth trying.
Alright next up we have a quick one which can be found in Settings, Personalization,
Start, then look for where you can "Choose Which Folders Appear on Start".
These selections change which folders show up on the left side of the start menu when
you open it.
Things like Documents, Pictures, Videos, but also Network, Settings, and a couple others.
So you can decide on what you want to show up there, or maybe you just want it all to
show up, it's up to you.
Ok up next we have another setting that some of you power users will probably like, but
don't worry if you don't know what I'm talking about with this one.
It's also under Settings, Personalization, but this time in Taskbar.
And it's called "Replace command prompt with windows power shell" blah blah blah.
This is actually ON by default ever since Windows 10 has been pushing people to use
Power Shell instead of old command prompt.
Now PowerShell is very powerful, but I think even more power users, and myself, are much
more familiar with good old command prompt, and would rather keep using that in most cases.
So disabling this won't disable PowerShell or anything, just makes it so Command Prompt
is the default option in most cases.
However, if you don't even know what I'm talking about, you can just keep this setting the
same, it literally won't make a difference to you.
Alright now number 4 is SO simple but SO essential in my opinion, and it has to do with the task
manager.
So you can bring this up just by pressing Ctrl + Shift + Esc, if you didn't know that
shortcut already.
Now at the top go to Options, and then click "Always on Top" so it's selected.
This deceptively simple setting is actually a lifesaver.
It makes it so whenever the task manager is open, it always comes in front of all other
windows, even full screen windows, and won't be blocked.
Obviously one of the most common reasons to use the task manager is when a program is
freezing and won't respond, and only the task manager can kill the process.
But sometimes, especially with full screen windows like games, it will push the task
manager behind it right after it opens so you can't even use it to close the program!
And then you have to just force power off the computer and it's a pain.
This way that should never happen, or at least not unless the frozen program is REALLY broken,
and could save you a ton of headache.
It will always be on the top so you can always access it.
Ok moving on, we want to go to Settings, Search, Searching Windows, then look for the settings
under "Find my Files", and change it to "Enhanced".
If it's set to classic, when you do a search on your computer, it won't actually search
your whole computer, only your different libraries like documents, pictures, videos, and desktop,
but nothing else, which completely defeats the purpose of doing a search!
Now we're not done, because if you're a more advanced user and sometimes need to find files
and folders in weird locations, note that even with 'enhanced' mode, Windows will still
exclude many folders from search, listed below in the menu.
By default this even excludes the program files folders, and AppData folders, where
most configuration files are stored, which you might want to still be able to search.
So I personally removed the program files and AppData folders from the exclusion list,
so they WILL be searched, and keep in mind there might be multiple of each if you install
programs on multiple drives.
All that being said though, if you are just a typical user you probably don't have to
worry about all that, just changing the setting to Enhanced is fine.
And if you don't know what those excluded folders even do, you don't need to change
them.
Alright number 6, this is a basic privacy setting you definitely want to change.
It can be found in Settings, Privacy, Activity History, and then Disable the setting called
"Send my activity history to Microsoft".
This has to do with the activity timeline feature that was added in an update, so this
setting didn't exist in my last video about Windows settings to change.
So as a reminder, there are a lot of other privacy settings in that other video that
still should be changed, so again be sure to watch that video after this one, the link
is in the description and will also be at the end.
Speaking of Windows updates, number 7 has to do with just that.
This setting can be found in Update & Security, Windows Update, and then look for "Change
Active Hours".
And here you can set up to an 18 hour time window every day during which Windows will
NOT automatically restart to install updates.
I doubt I have to tell you why this is useful, the whole thing about Windows Update restarts
has been a meme since the beginning of time.
And of course you can always manually restart to install updates if you want during this
window.
Alright for the next few, we're going to be changing some settings in the File Explorer.
So for these you can open up any Explorer window and go to View, Options, Change Folder
and Search Options, and then the View Tab.
So next up is a setting to ENABLE in here called "Display the full path in the title
bar", which like the name suggests, just makes it so Explorer windows will now always show
the entire full directory path, instead of just showing the name of the current folder.
Which I think just makes a ton more sense, so you can always know where you're at.
Next, number 9 in here, is called "Launch folder windows in a separate process", and
you'll probably want to enable it.
This will make it so every time you launch explorer and open a new separate folder window,
that window will get its own process.
This way, if you have a bunch of different explorer windows open and one of them freezes,
theoretically ONLY that one will freeze, instead of taking all the other ones down with it.
So if it outright crashes, or you have to kill the process with task manager, the others
will be more likely to be unaffected, which can save you a ton of annoyance.
Ok this next setting is actually over on the 'General' tab, and is called "Open File Explorer
to", with a dropdown.
And by default this is set to "Quick Access", but I think it makes much more sense to set
it to "This PC", which used to be called "My Computer" in older versions of Windows.
So now when you open a new explorer window like from the taskbar, you'll see all your
drives and network locations, instead of just showing the Quick Access items, which are
still just on the left side anyway, so it was completely redundant!
So having it set to this just makes more sense, but obviously if you are super used to it
the other way, it's optional.
Alright up to number 11, this is kind of a quick two-parter.
So look at the top any explorer window and click on the little dropdown arrow icon, which
allows you to customize the quick access toolbar.
I suggest UNCHECKING where it says "minimize the ribbon", so you always have access to
that bar at the top with all the settings.
This is obviously preferential but I think it's better to always have all your options
right there instead of hidden.
The other little thing here is to CHECK where it says "redo", so you will also have the
redo button at the top of the explorer windows.
Since by default the undo button is up there, it just makes sense to have the redo button
there too if you need it.
Alright before we move on from file explorer settings, here's an important bonus setting,
it's not going to count, which I did mention in the other video, but is so important I
should mention it twice here.
It's back in the View tab in that Options menu, and here you want to UNCHECK "Hide file
extensions for known file types."
I went into more detail in the old video about this one, but it makes sure all files always
show their file extensions so you will always know what kind of file you are dealing with.
Which is incredibly important.
Alright we still got a couple more and these remaining settings are found in the control
panel, which you can get to just by opening the start menu and searching Control Panel.
As a quick bonus tip, you can right click this result and pin it to the start menu so
it's easier to access later.
Anyway, number 12 can be found in control panel, and then System & Security and then
Power Options.
Here you'll find a few different performance profiles, and the default is probably set
to "Balanced".
But if you're on a Desktop computer that's just plugged in all the time, you should probably
just change this to High Performance so the computer is never limited.
If you're on a laptop, you probably shouldn't set it to high performance unless it's plugged
in, because it will use the battery much faster.
And fun fact, in some editions of Windows like "Pro for Workstations" and enterprise,
there's even an "Ultimate Performance" mode you can see here, which supposedly squeezes
out even more power somehow, but don't worry if you don't have that, high performance will
still use your computer's full potential.
And finally we have number 13, which can again be found in Windows Update, Advanced Options,
and then if it's not already disabled, make sure you disable the option called "Restart
this device as soon as possible when a restart is required to install an update", I know
it's a mouthful, but it does exactly as it says.
So when this is enabled, Windows will do the thing where it tries to restart immediately
after installing an update, and only gives you a few minutes to respond and delay it,
even if you're actively using the computer.
So definitely make sure you disable this one or you never know when Windows Update will
strike next.
And so now we've finished Part 2 of the Windows Settings to Change series.
Again you really need to watch the first one if you haven't already, which honestly has
settings that are even more important than the ones in this video.
So you can just click this thumbnail to watch it here, or I'll put the link in the description
too just in case.
So thanks so much for watching, and I'll see you in the next video.